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The (Pope’s) Butler Did It

A mystery in The Vatican over who might be leaking documents that include Pope Benedict XVI’s private correspondence, has apparently been solved with the arrest of the most stereotypically obvious suspect possible: VATICAN CITY — An already sordid scandal over leaked Vatican documents took a Hollywood-like turn Saturday with confirmation that the pope’s own butler [...]

The American Taliban (at Least in Terms of Rhetoric)

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The phrase “American Taliban” is usually off the mark. However, sometimes it is closer to the mark than we might like.

Major Catholic Organizations File Suit Over Contraceptive Coverage Mandate

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The Catholic Church has fired a legal shot across the bow of the Affordable Care Act.

Romney Giving Commencement Speech At University That Calls Mormonism A Cult

Mitt Romney is giving the commencement address at Liberty University today, which is interesting if only because of what the school’s Course Catalog has to say on the matter of Romney’s faith: LYNCHBURG, Va. — On page 173 of the course catalog for Liberty University, the country’s largest Evangelical Christian college, there’s a graduate course [...]

Obama Still Winning Catholics Despite Contraception Coverage Controversy

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This past winter’s controversy over contraceptive coverage doesn’t appear to be hurting President Obama among Catholic voters: While Catholics — who make up 24% of all registered voters — tilt toward Obama over Romney, their support differs significantly based on how religious they are — just as was the case for Protestants. Very religious Catholics [...]

Liberty University Students Protest Choice Of Romney As Commencement Speaker

It would appear that many students at Liberty Universty, the Lynchburg, Virginia school founded by the late Jerry Falwell, are not happy that Mitt Romney will be giving the school’s commencement address this year: Liberty University students and alumni are accusing the Christian school of violating its own teachings by asking Republican presidential candidate Mitt [...]

The Christian Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

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Andrew Sullivan wants the Catholic Church to give up its hatred of homosexuals. There’s another alternative.

Independents: Religious Conservatives Have Too Much Control Over GOP

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There are plenty of interesting pieces of data in the new Pew Research survey conducted for the Pew Forum on Religion and Life, but here’s one that may have implications for the 2012 elections: About half of the public (51%) agrees that religious conservatives have too much control over the GOP. Fewer (41%) agree that [...]

Once Again, Santorum Loses The Catholic Vote

I noted last week that Rick Santorum, arguably the most Catholic candidate to ever run for the Presidency, had lost the Catholic vote in Michigan and Arizona. Perhaps not surprisingly, he also failed to carry Ohio Catholics yesterday: (CNN) – Rick Santorum, a conservative Catholic who is outspoken about faith-based issues, lost Catholic voters by [...]

My, How Christian Of Him

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Franklin Graham is apologizing for his remarks last week questioning the President’s faith: WASHINGTON (RNS) Evangelist Franklin Graham apologized Tuesday (Feb. 28) to President Obama for questioning his Christian faith and said religion has “nothing to do” with Graham’s decision not to support Obama’s re-election. Graham’s apology came after a group of prominent black religious [...]

Santorum Lost The Catholic Vote Last Night

Looking through the exit polling from Michigan and Arizona, there’s one fact that stood out to me. In both states, Rick Santorum, who has made his Catholicism and his positions on culture war issues like contraception part of his campaign for weeks now, lost the Catholic vote to a Mormon. In Michigan, Catholics went for [...]

Money, Bombs, and Jesus

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A discussion in the comments thread of my “Time Running Out For GOP?” post led me to a post from four-plus years ago by frequent commenter and erstwhile blogger* Michael Reynolds titled “Money, Bombs and Jesus.”

The First Amendment Makes Rick Santorum Want To Vomit

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Rick Santorum’s views on the role of religion in public life are built on lies about American history.

Afghan Protests Prove, It’s Time For Us To Leave

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The latest round of protests in Afghanistan prove yet again that it’s time for us to leave.

Rick Santorum And Conservative Anti-Intellectualism

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A man who has three degrees from three public universities considers the President of the United States a “snob.”

Religiosity of the American Professoriate

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Reading journal articles, so you don’t have to.

Santorum and his Theology

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Santorum and stewardship of the Earth.

Social Science v. Santorum

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A study of religiosity and young adults found that those who attend college are actually less likely to experience religious decline than those who do not attend college.

Rick Santorum Gets It Wrong On The Role Of Religion In Politics

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Rick Santorum would do well to listen to the words of the last Catholic to be President of the United States.

Federal Court Rules Pharmacists Cannot Be Forced To Sell “Morning After” Pill

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A Federal District Court Judge has ruled that a pharmacist cannot be required to stock and dispense the so-called Plan B birth control pill if he has a moral objection to abortifacients: A federal judge ruled Wednesday that pharmacists cannot be forced by state rules to sell “morning-after” contraceptives, also known as Plan B. The [...]

Rick Santorum: Evolution Used To Promote Atheism In Schools

Once again Rick Santorum’s past comments about religious and cultural issues are coming back to bite him. This time, it’s a comment he made in 2008 regarding the teaching of evolution in public schools: One of the issues that I always got hammered for was the issue of evolution. I was the guy who actually [...]

Virginia’s Foolish Personhood Law

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Virginia has become the latest battleground for advocates of laws that define life as being at conception.

Rick Santorum Wonders If Obama Is A Real Christian

In a subtle but pointed attack, Rick Santorum today suggested that President Obama doesn’t follow a true version of Christianity: COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Lashing out on two fronts, Rick Santorum on Saturday questioned President Barack Obama’s Christian values and attacked GOP rival Mitt Romney’s Olympics leadership as he courted tea party activists and evangelical [...]

Rick Santorum Thinks Satan Has Taken Over America

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Rick Santorum is Michele Bachmann level crazy. Yet he’s arguably the Republican frontrunner right now.

Democratic Senator: ‘Right To Insurance’ More Important Than Religious Liberty

I’ve noted before that I am highly skeptical of the religious liberty arguments being put forward by some opponents of the Obama Administration’s contraception coverage policy as applied to institutions run by churches and other religious organizations. That said, this statement by California’s Barbara Boxer is absolutely ridiculous: Senator Boxer warned yesterday that if the [...]

Contraception Politics Redux (This Time Fortified with Numbers)

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Some polling numbers to go along with the speculation.

From The Department Of Conflicting Polls: Catholic Edition

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Rasmussen: Catholics strongly disapprove of the job President Obama is doing as the debate continues over his administration’s new policy forcing Catholic institutions to pay for contraception they morally oppose. While the president’s overall job approval ratings have improved over the past couple of months, they have remained steady among Catholics. A new Rasmussen Reports [...]

Catholic Bishops Call White House Contraceptive Coverage Policy Change “Unacceptable”

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Late yesterday, the nation’s Catholic Bishops came out with a statement that noted at least two strong objections to the revised contraceptive coverage plan unveiled yesterday by the White House: Hours after calling the Obama administration’s contraceptives compromise a “first step,” the Catholic bishops said Friday night they have “two serious objections” to the new [...]

White House’s Revised Contraceptive Proposal Unlikely To Satisfy Critics

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The Obama Administration’s proposed solution to the impasse over contraceptives is unlikely to end the debate.

Report: Obama Administration To Offer “Accomodation” On Contraceptive Rule

ABC News’s Jake Tapper is reporting this morning that the Obama Administration will be offering a compromise of some form regarding its controversial new rule requiring employers to provide coverage for contraceptives to their employees: With the White House under fire for its new rule requiring employers including religious organizations to offer health insurance that [...]

Getting The State Out of The Marriage Business

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Should we just hand “marriage” over to churches and have civil unions for everyone else?

White House May Be Ready To Compromise On Contraceptive Coverage Regulations

There are some signs that the Obama Administration may be looking for a way out of the controversy it has found itself in with Catholics and other religious groups: The White House may be open to compromising on a new rule that requires religious schools and hospitals to provide employees with access to free birth [...]

Obama, Contraceptives, And The Catholic Vote

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Will the Obama Administration’s decision on contraceptive coverage by the Catholic Church have an impact in November?

Anti-Gay Bigotry on Display

The AFA strikes again.

ObamaCare, The Catholic Church, And Religious Liberty

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Requiring a religious institution to comply with civilian laws is not a violation of religious liberty.

Did Romney’s Mormonism Hurt Him In South Carolina? Sure Looks Like It

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This particular result from the CNN Exit Poll of yesterday’s South Carolina raises an eyebrow (click image to enlarge) : It is, I suppose, amusing that the guy who was raised Lutheran, became a Baptist in college, and converted to Catholicism after marrying the third wife he’d been carrying on an extra-martial affair with gets [...]

Santorum Staffer: Women Shouldn’t Be President Because It’s Against God’s Will

Marie Diamond finds this nugget in a Des Moines Register article discussing the reasons why Michele Bachmann’s campaign failed: Rival presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s Iowa coalitions director, Jamie Johnson, sent out an email saying that children’s lives would be harmed if the nation had a female president. He wrote it in June, but it surfaced [...]

Evangelicals Not United Behind Santorum After All

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It seems that Saturday’s vote by evangelical leaders in favor of Rick Santorum was less than meets the eye.

Tim Tebow: It’s Just A Football Game

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Tim Tebow has been at the center of a culture war battle, but he seems to have a more balanced view of the whole thing.

Supreme Court Upholds Religious Exemption To Employment Discrimination Laws

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A far-reaching decision from the Supreme Court protecting religious liberty.

Federal Appeals Court Blocks Implementation Of Oklahoma Sharia Law Ban

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In 2010, Oklahoma voters passed a referendum blocking state judges from considering Islamic or any other form of international law when rendering decisions in Oklahoma courts. Despite widespread criticism, the referendum passed by a wide margin in what was widely attributed to the same kind of hysteria over Islam that we had seen the previous [...]

Cee Lo Green Changes ‘Imagine’ Lyrics

Cee Lo Green caused on New Year’s Eve by changing the lyrics of Imagine from “And no religion, too” to “And all religions true.”

Catholic Bishops Claim Laws Allowing Gay Adoption Violate Religious Liberty

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If you’re going to take public money, “religious liberty” is not an excuse to fail to comply with the law.

O Little (Fightin’) Town Of Bethlehem

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The Christmas spirit didn’t last very long at the Church Of The Nativity, the church built on the site where most Christians believe Christ was born: At one of oldest churches in the world, built over the cave that tradition marks as the place Jesus was born, Franciscan, Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests have brawled [...]

Ron Paul: I Don’t Accept The Theory Of Evolution

Via CBS News comes this video of a Town Hall from 2007: “Well, first i thought it was a very inappropriate question, you know, for the presidency to be decided on a scientific matter,” he said. “I think it’s a theory…the theory of evolution and I don’t accept it as a theory. But I think [...]

USA Still Christian Nation

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In a blinding flash of the obvious, Gallup finds that “Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States.”

The Republican Candidates And The Separation Of Church And State

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The Republican candidates for President are blurring what should be a pretty clear line.

Ads Pulled From Muslim-American Reality Show After Conservative Groups Complain

Conservative groups are upset because a new reality show depicts Muslim-Americans as, well, normal Americans.

Newt Gingrich Promises He Won’t Commit Adultery (This Time)

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Newt Gingrich has penned a lengthy response to the Iowa evangelical group The Family Leader in which he pledges support for a federal marriage amendment, supports the Mexico City Policy (which prevents any group getting federal dollars to refrain from performing abortions anywhere in the world, and  promises he will never commit adultery: Defending Marriage.  [...]

Rick Perry Declares War On The First Amendment

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In a desperate bid to save a floundering campaign, Rick Perry is willing to sacrifice important freedoms.

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